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Eric Frein manhunt: One month of 'pure evil' on the loose in the Poconos

Capture of Eric Frien: A timeline

This photo released by Pennsylvania State Police on Friday, Oct. 3, 2014, shows a campsite near Canadensis, Pa., that officials say was used by suspected killer Eric Frein. A massive manhunt has been underway for 31-year-old Frein in the rugged terrain of the Pocono Mountains since Sept. 12. The self-taught survivalist is charged with killing Cpl. Bryon Dickson and seriously wounding Trooper Alex Douglass outside their barracks in Blooming Grove.
(AP)

In the month since rifle shots rang out outside a Pennsylvania State Police barracks in Blooming Grove Township, the leaves have changed from green to yellow, gold and red. And the temperatures in the rolling Pocono Mountains have plunged from end-of-summer mild to a bracing autumn chill.

But as the calendar has turned, a month has passed and so much there has changed since the fatal shooting of one trooper and the serious wounding of another, one thing has remained the same:

Eric Frein, the prime suspect in the state police ambush, has effectively eluded a massive police manhunt concentrated in the thick, rocky forests of Monroe and Pike counties.

Fugitive Eric Frein's YouTube channel is under Frein's war game's name, "Vucko," or Serbian for Little Wolf. Frein posted videos of the "Eastern Wolf" military simulation group participating in was games to the channel. But most of the posts are several years old. file

The search area is rich with fertile hunting grounds that feature simple cabins, country folk and, increasingly, more moneyed residents moving in from other parts of Pennsylvania, as well as New York and New Jersey.

But for Frein, it is simply home.

The self-proclaimed survivalist, anti-government ranter, and Serbian army re-enactor, right down to the potent Eastern European cigarettes he is said to favor, has enjoyed a home field advantage over the hundreds of Pennsylvania State Police and other law enforcement meticulously combing the thick woods, winding country roads and dusty dirt trails, and gated access roads for the alleged cop-killer.

How prepared was Frein for what some say is the ultimate war game he's playing now?

Consider what state police have learned during their month-long investigation and search:

Frein kept a U.S. Army manual called "Sniper Training and Employment" in his bedroom at his parents' house, around which the manhunt is concentrated. His father, Michael Frein, a retired Army major, told authorities that his son is an excellent marksman who "doesn't miss."

"Undies, sleep clothes and poncho liner," were among the clothing items listed, along with camp supplies including a compass, flashlight, stove and fuel. The list, which was broken into six sections, also detailed various weapons he would need, including a rifle, two bombs, fuses and wire, The Associated Press reported. Another section included items to conceal one's location, including a camouflage net, bandannas and a space blanket.

Clearly, Eric Frein is in this for the long haul. But so, it appears, are the state police.

As the manhunt involving hundreds of troopers — along with untold amounts of overtime and other expenses — turns a month old, there is both strong local support for law enforcement who lost one of their own and uncertainty over how long Frein can hold out in the forests — if he's even still there.

Some, including Frein's sister, believe he is long gone.

But the state police, touting a string of what they believe to be Frein sightings, remain convinced otherwise, concentrating their search to the thick woods just south of Canadensis in Monroe County, near Frein's parents' home.

The most recent sighting came Tuesday afternoon, when an officer believed he had a brief glimpse of Frein from about 200 yards away, The Associated Press reported. It was the fourth Frein sighting by police or the community in roughly a week.

Along with the sightings, there have been discoveries of food and ammunition caches, a devastating diary in which Frein allegedly lays out the ambush, even diapers that may or may not have been worn by Frein to allow him to remain for long periods in confined spaces.

Tactical teams have also discovered evidence that Frein hid and made small fires in the crevices of a 40-foot rock face, AP reported.

Yet it all began some time ago, first with a thought, then a plan, which grew more and more elaborate in its detail and preparation.

"He had been planning and preparing for a confrontation," State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens was quoted as saying of the barracks shooting. "I do believe that he has been surveilling the station for an extended period of time."

Despite questions about costs and search strategy, the state police remain all-in on the manhunt. A question put to Trooper Tom Kelly, PSP spokesman, on how long the agency was prepared to conduct a search of this scale didn't receive a definitive answer.

"I have no official statement," Kelly replied via e-mail Friday.

Perhaps this is in keeping with the old adage of not wanting to tip off one's opponent to a withdrawal date, as this would give Frein reason to hold out and keep hiding.

Or the state police simply have no thought of giving up. Perhaps, this one is personal. The sheer number of troopers deployed, the volume of equipment dispatched and the untold amount of money being spent appear to demonstrate this.

As Bivens put it in his most recent news conference: "Every so often true evil rears its ugly head, and we must deal with it."

The alleged motive for the ambush, aside from Frein's anti-government rants, remains unclear. State police still don't know if either of the officers shot in the attack were specifically targeted — or simply targets of opportunity on that fateful Friday night, Sept. 12.

That night, around 11 p.m., Frein's alleged long-held plan was put into action: Positioned on higher ground looking down upon the police barracks door, Frein's steady finger must have weighed firmly on the rifle trigger.

Then, in an instant, it all begins.

A rifle shot rings out in the late summer darkness. Then another. Then a third.

Frein's alleged plan is now in motion. So, too, is he.

Soon, the entire apparatus and command of the Pennsylvania State Police would mobilize to hunt him down.

But first, a proud police organization would bury one of their own, their fallen PSP brother and a beloved husband and father, Cpl. Bryon Dickson.

Police from Pennsylvania and beyond would pause to mourn and pay tribute.

Diary of 'pure evil'

Those three shots would launch one of the more massive manhunts in Pennsylvania crime history.

But before this, it was just Frein and his alleged elaborate plan. Now we have what are purported by police to be Frein's own words — an ambush diary, if you will. It was found at a soggy campsite used by the fugitive, according to The Associated Press.

Law enforcement officials continue to investigate two days after a Pennsylvania State trooper was killed and another trooper was injured during a shooting Friday night at the Pennsylvania State Police barracks in Blooming Grove Township. A law enforcement official looks out Sunday from the state police barracks in Blooming Grove Township.PAUL CHAPLIN | pchaplin@pennlive.com

Frein watched one of his victims fall "still and quiet." This after the marksman wrote that he "got a shot around 11 p.m. and took it. He dropped. I was surprised at how quick."

After describing how the first victim — Cpl. Bryon Dickson, who was killed — dropped to the ground after being shot, Frein allegedly wrote: "I took a follow-up shot on his head and neck area. He was still and quiet after that. Another cop approached the one I just shot. As he went to kneel, I took a shot at him and [he] jumped in the door. His legs were visible and still."

This is when Trooper Alex Douglass was seriously wounded.

The journal goes on to describe how Frein fled from the shooting scene in a Jeep with his headlights dimmed, ran it into a swamp on an access road, and then took off on foot — a botched getaway Frein termed a "disaster."

The waterlogged document was discovered Sept. 29, when authorities discovered a campsite at which they also found explosives, ammunition, food, water and clothing.

Previously, police had found an AK-47, spent shells that matched those used in the attack, face paint, various personal documents and, later, pipe bombs packed with metal shrapnel, along with explosive powder consistent with the kind found in Frein's bedroom.

Authorities are still analyzing the journal, but State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens is convinced it was written by Frein, who is charged in the deadly attack that killed one trooper and seriously injured a second, AP reported. He also faces two counts of possession of weapons of mass destruction.

"I will tell you, after reading this cold-blooded and absolutely chilling account, I can only describe Eric Frein's actions as pure evil," he said.

'Amazing Grace'

It has been a month of grieving for a husband and father called to serve, but who will never again come home.

In Scranton, the bagpipes blared, the bells tolled and St. Peter's Cathedral was packed with family, friends, colleagues and elected officials. Meanwhile, city streets were lined with thousands of officers from all over, each of them wearing black arm bands or black over their shiny badges.

Mounted troopers from Pennsylvania State Police stand guard outside the public viewing for slain Cpl. Bryon Dickson on Wednesday at Marywood University in Scranton.Mark Pynes, PennLive.com

At the service, Pennsylvania state police chaplain pondered unanswerable questions: Why such a heinous act? Why such violence? Why someone so young, so full of life, passion, with so much more to give, would be stricken down?

But the most indelible images were the somber faces of Dickson's wife, now a widow, and of his two young sons, now without a father.

Meanwhile, Trooper Alex Douglass, a nine-year veteran of the force, remained hospitalized, recovering from surgery. And just to the northeast, an alleged cop-killer remained on the loose.

Still, police paused. People fell silent. Many wept.

Then, shortly before 10 a.m. on Sept. 18, the bells in the church bell tower began tolling. Police units snapped to attention. The roar of a motorcycle detail unit filled the silence with its rumble, followed by the slow and solemn beat of a drum corps. In the distance, the bagpipes played the U.S. Marine anthem. And from inside the cathedral, the chorus sang "Amazing Grace."

Amid the tolling of the bells, the blaring of bagpipes and the beating of the drums, Dickson's flag-draped coffin was carried inside the cathedral. Hundreds of his colleagues from Troop R in Blooming Grove Township filed in after their fallen brother.

This photo provided by the Pennsylvania State Police shows Cpl. Bryon Dickson. Dickson was killed by a gunman as he left the police barracks in Blooming Grove Township. State police spokesman Trooper Tom Kelly said investigators hope to soon interview Trooper Alex Douglass, who was injured in the attack, to get additional information on the ambush. AP|Pa. State police

Dickson was buried with full police honors. His state police extended family mourned as others hunted his killer. They soon would be joined by the kind of tactical strength and show of force nearly unrivaled in Pennsylvania history.

The state police were hurting. But the manhunt was on.

Few had ever seen its like before.

Ground zero

They came by the hundreds, the state police and other federal and out-of-state officers did, pouring in to rural Monroe and Pike counties, where the manhunt for Eric Frein has been concentrated.

They were outfitted in body amour. Some were clad in camouflage. They toted high-powered rifles, and peered through long scopes, scanning the thick wood for their target. All manner of tactical equipment and armored transport vehicles also rolled into areas far more accustomed to simple hunting rifles, shotguns and high-mileage pickup trucks.

In the early days of the search, roads were blocked, schools were closed and residents were kept from their homes. Entire towns around Barrett Township were inconvenienced. Some say leaf-peeping and free-spending tourists are staying away as a result, hurting businesses, shops and restaurants in quaint Poconos towns like Mountainhome.

Hunting season, another economic driver in this area, has been indefinitely suspended in large swaths of public and private grounds affected by the search.

Helicopters hover overhead, day and night. Convoys of state police cruisers roll in and out of the search area on a daily basis. Frein is on the FBI's most-wanted list. And sleepy Barrett Township has become Ground Zero for it all.

Tensions are running high.

Some resident are seeing Eric Frein everywhere they turn. More than a few are packing heat. All the while, some here believe the fugitive is having fun and playing a game.

"He is in a very dense and thick area of forest," Smith added. "He's playing a game, and he's good at it."

On his way to his store one morning, Smith described driving past the search area in the pre-dawn dark, only to see scores of state police lying on their stomachs and peering through their rifle sights into the thick woods east of the road.

In many ways, it is a town under siege. At the center of it all, is Eric Frein.

"He is a fugitive armed with a sniper rifle and explosives. He is a threat not only to law enforcement but to the community as a whole," Sam Rabadi, the special agent in charge of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Pennsylvania, was quoted as saying.

'Systematic' search

There are blue ribbons and handwritten signs of support everywhere one turns in Barrett Township, as a town pours out its heart for police flocking here to protect them and ensnare Eric Frein.

"I'm in the safest place in America right now with all these policemen and SWAT teams around," Charlie Babaz said from behind the counter of Mountainhome Antiques, where he's the owner.

The law enforcement search here has been methodical, if plodding. The strategy is to eliminate possible hiding places for Frein, including hunting cabins, campsites and other occasional residences in the Pocono Mountains, AP reported.

View full sizeLooking at the effect the manhunt for Eric Frein is having on this area of the Poconos. A group of ATF officers patrol the woods along Rt. 447 in Monroe Twp. on Oct. 1.Sean Simmers, PennLive.com

"We're systemically taking away any opportunities for him for cover and concealment, for any comfort," Lt. Col. George Bivens said early on in the search.

"We have now made the world where he could hide a very, very small place," Edward Hanko, special agent in charge of the FBI's Philadelphia office, added in the AP report.

But not small enough, apparently.

Some people have raised concern about the resources being spent — the cost is still unclear — and the pace of the search that has yielded little new information to the public in recent days. At the dawn of the search, upset locals voiced frustrations about being kept from their homes and, more recently, hunters were caught off-guard when the Pennsylvania State Game Commission temporarily banned hunting and trapping in seven northeastern townships.

Halloween might be the next casualty of Eric Frein and the massive manhunt. Already, there are reports of many municipalities around the search area calling off Halloween parades and canceling trick or treat.

View full sizeLooking at the effect the manhunt for Eric Frein is having on this area of the Poconos. A sign in the square in Canadensis.Sean Simmers, PennLive.com

But the question that resonates most strongly here is more basic: How long can this go on?

How long can Frein elude the manhunt? How long can state police throw this kind of costly equipment and manpower into the search? And how long can the small towns of Barrett Township be held hostage by it all?

"By the end of the day, I just need to turn it off," she said. "There is just so much going on. Even the people in town aren't going out. I see the helicopters. I see the police. And I just want to go home. I want to shut it off. I'm overwhelmed, over-saturated."

Only, there is no off switch. Worse, there is no sense when this will all be over.

"I don't feel like they are going to find anything," Knipe said of the ongoing search, which keeps sifting in the forests southeast of here. "There are some people who believe he is long gone. I believe he is still here. But we want to understand why it is taking this long and we don't. All we can do is speculate."

Could it be that the woods are just that deep and thick, providing ample hiding places for someone like Frein who knows how to turn the harsh landscape to his advantage?

"I don't know," Knipe answers. "I don't go into the woods."

No one here does, these days.

No one but the state police. And Eric Frein.

Perhaps that's the biggest change of all. In this part of the Pocono Mountains known for its brilliant fall bloom of colorful autumn leaves and abundant hunting grounds, the woods are off limits. A vital natural resource is cut off.

It isn't safe. As long as Eric Frein remains at large, it just isn't safe.

No crystal ball

So when will the wide open woods that had always been an open invitation to these rural residents be safe again?

"Do you have a crystal ball?" Smith quips, tired and irritable at the one question on everyone's mind here.

Submitted photo

After all, Smith has taken the measure of Eric Frein. To much resulting publicity, Smith told the media early on in the search that the self-proclaimed survivalist had once shopped in his store, which is stocked with the very equipment and food Frein might need to hunker down in the deep, thick woods for a good, long time.

"Surviving out there is like anything else," Smith says. "You've got to have food. [Frein] could put up with everything else."

And while Smith's observation of the man he believed to be Eric Frein was that of an "eccentric who might have some problems," the outdoorsman knows that someone familiar with the woods could hide there a while, a long while. Frein is on his home turf, after all.

Seen this way, the one being hunted seems to hold the advantage. Everyone else, from town's folk to heavily armored police, have targets on their backs.

And Smith, for one, hates feeling like a man wearing a target in his own town.

"Who wants to the live in a place where you feel you have to carry" a weapon?, he asks.

Yet, for a month and counting now, most everyone in these parts of the Pocono Mountains have come to know this very feeling.

It's the deeply unsettling sensation of being the hunted in a town of hunters.

The Associated Press and staff reports contributed to this story.

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